1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to outbound roamers. More specifically, the invention relates to dynamic provisioning of Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic (CAMEL) Subscription Information (CSI) of the outbound roamers.
2. Background of the Technology
Various operators offer international roaming to their users utilizing mobile communication systems employed worldwide. One of the most lucrative aspects of international roaming for an operator is the revenue generated by outbound roaming. The operator generates revenue from outbound roaming when a subscriber of the operator's own home network, visits another network and makes calls. To increase outbound roaming revenue, many operators offer various value-added call control services to the outbound roamers.
These value added services may be provided both for Mobile Originated (MO) and Mobile Terminated (MT) outbound roamer calls. Some of these value added services for the MO calls include, but are not limited to, roaming home short-code, optimal routing, misdialed digit correction, prepaid roaming, Calling Line Identification (CLI) guarantee, and roaming fraud control. Value added services for the MT call for an outbound roamer include, but are not limited to; optimal routing for late call forwarding, incoming call screening and MT prepaid roaming. Roaming home short-code for a MO call from the outbound roamer allows the outbound roamer to dial a home network short-code, such as, customer care, or emergency at the visited network. This service then translates the short-code into the home or visited network long number. In case of an MT call for an outbound roamer, the incoming call screening service allows the outbound roamer to screen only selected callers to get through to the outbound roamer. Further, in case the outbound roamer misdials a number, i.e., a MO call, due to a wrong or missing international dialing prefix, the call may be intelligently corrected using the misdialed digits correction service.
Generally, implementing one or more of the above-mentioned value added services can include Customized Application for Mobile network Enhanced Logic (CAMEL). In that case, when the outbound roamer registers at the visiting network and initiates a call, an Originating CAMEL Subscription Information (O-CSI) is sent from a Home Location Register (HLR) of the home network of the roamer to a Visited Location Register (VLR) of the visiting network. The O-CSI enables the call control for the MO call from a VPMN VMSC to pass to a HPMN GSM Service Control Function (SCF). Similarly, for a MT call, the HLR sends a T-CSI to a HPMN GMSC, which in turn passes the call control to the HPMN gsmSCF. Therefore, for the MO call, the O-CSI is provisioned at the VLR, while for the MT call the T-CSI is provisioned at the HLR.
HLR is provisioned with the O-CSI and the T-CSI for the MO-call and the MT-call irrespective of whether the subscriber is outbound roaming or not. Further, the HLR is provisioned irrespective of whether the subscriber is currently outbound roaming on the CAMEL network or not. Moreover, the license cost of CAMEL subscription for the CSI by an HLR vendor is usually linked to the number of O-CSI or T-CSI or the number of subscribers defined with a CSI that are statically provisioned at the HLR. This static provisioning is irrespective of the number of O-CSI or T-CSI subscribers outbound roaming at any given time. Thus, subscriber-based charging by the HLR vendor often proves to be expensive for the operator.
On the other hand, certain HLR vendors have an upper-limit on the number of T-CSI and O-CSI to be provisioned at the HLR. In this case, the limit for storing the CSI in the HLR becomes a bottleneck for the operator.
One or more of the above-mentioned approaches suffer from the problem of static provisioning of the CSI at the HLR irrespective of the number of outbound roaming subscribers at a given time. This increases the cost for supporting the CAMEL subscribers. Thus, there is a need for an alternative approach that is cost-effective by keeping the number of CSI provisioned at the HLR low at any time.